Government: Week 2
Week 2: The Constitutionhttp://www.wikia.com/Wikia Schedule ... Tests This Week Tests: Reading quiz #2 and #3 Next Week Tests: Chapter 1 and 2 Exam (Thursday) Notes Day 1 (3-10) *government helped war vets buy houses through veteran's administration **went to school through gi bill *aristotle made natural law: scoeity governed by ethical principles *protestant reformation: ppl should be able to talk to God without preiset *covenants evolved into social contract: people give consent to be governed Hobbes vs Locke *both wrote social contracts *Hobbes: Man inherently at war. Strong government was necessary to save man from himself and man must give up some rights in order to be saved *Locke: Men made goverment to protect property and justice. If they don't do this they ahve the right to revolt *we strike a balance between these two Democracy *first rep assembly was in the virginia house of burgesses *new england began town meetings direct democracy *colonists mad cause no reps in house of commons and house of lords *repubic because direct democracy was too cumbersome Capitalism *how much government interference? Could government limit individual liberties *we have private ownership of property and a free markket enterprise *mercantalism dominant; idea of free trade without tarriffs was unheard off *adam smith thought no tariffs or barriers to free trade would be kind of cool *not totally capitalist **us is sometimes quite laissez-faire *argues for minimalist government involvement Day 2 (22-31) political ideology: consistent set of values that have historically beeen reflected in the political system, economic roder, social goals, and moral values *conservative: a defender of the status quo in government, power, and religion *liberals: forward looking for social schange and freedom from government control of ideas *libertarians: individual freedom and curtailment of governmental power Handy Comparisons *Internet and TV are pretty cool as they give more information *federal government had few responsibilities and its citizens ahd few expectations of it beyond defense *government took more repsonsiblity as US got bigger *now it regulates American's buisness, poverty releif, food inspection *New Deal **every aspect of American Life was controlled **government is now a solution to everything **socialism *Americans vote on many different things *responsible voters may simply opt not to go to the polls *Ralph Nader ran as an alternative to Demos and Reps since everybody hated them *government is not static *polticial issues are modeled by racial, economic, and historical experiences *G8: Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, UK, US, and sometimes Russia Day 3 (36-40) *colonists came to the new world to **escape religious persecution **start where land was plentiful *how best to rule the colonies that were so far away and pretty indp **1st elected colinial assembly (virinial house of burgesses ) and elected general court of Mass Bay **king ruled by Divine Right *weakening ties with crown because of long seperation **no feudalis, class system, or absolute king power **each colony had constitution **land abundant **no restrictive guild/class systems **no single state church or compulsory tithe *mercantalism **1650 navigation acts to prevent holland from trading too much **unwritten agreement that US:UK::levy taxes:authority to regulate trade and conduct international affairs Then the French and Indian War happened-------------------------------------------------------- *Aftermath of War **no indian problems ?= expansion ***nope says british **sugar act ***no taxation without representation **stamp act ***major protest **quartering act ***sons of liberty started **Stamp Act Congress: 1st Official Meeting of Colonies ***9/13 colonies sent representative to NYC meeting ***defined what the crown did wrong ***such as: Brits had to authority to tax without rep **Crown repealed stamp act adnd revised sugar act **townshend acts; duties on stuff ***boycott and crown send 4000 troop garrison **Boston Massacre ***duties but tea act are lifted **Committee of Correspondence: articulate ideas to keep communication sopen around the colony *another tax on tea *Boston Tea Party **coersive (intolerable) acts *1st Continental Congress **56 delgates from all buy Georgia **Declaration of Rights and resolves ***colonial rights of petition and assmebly ***trial by peers ***freedom from a standing army ***selection of rep council to levy taxes **Second Continental Congress ***fighting had broken out at Lexington and Concord with shot heard round the world ***this means war ***envoys to France for assistance **Olive Branch Petition: asked for peace ***20K troops were sent instead **Common Sense by Thomas Paine ***120K copies (18.75 M today) ***1 book for 13 people amazing looking at literacy rates Day 4 (40-44)